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The Plymouth Athenaeum
Plymouth Athenaeum, located in Plymouth, England, is a society dedicated to the promotion of learning in the fields of science, technology, literature and art. The Athenaeum building, located at Derry's Cross in Plymouth City Centre, includes a 340-seat auditorium and a local interest library. History Founded on 17 October 1812 as the Plymouth Institute, it was soon renamed the Plymouth Institution. The first meetings took place in Catherine Street and later Frankfort Street Art Gallery. Architect and founding member of the Institution John Foulston, who had won a competition to design the Royal Hotel and Theatre group of buildings, designed the building that would become the permanent home of the organisation. The foundation stone of the Athenaeum, which had a Greek Doric-style facade, was laid on 1 May 1818. The Devon and Cornwall Natural History Society, formed in 1838, amalgamated with the Plymouth Institution in 1851. The Mechanics' Institute in Princes Street closed in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Plymouth Athenarum Building
Plymouth () is a port city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to the west and south-west. Plymouth's early history extends to the Bronze Age when a first settlement emerged at Mount Batten. This settlement continued as a trading post for the Roman Empire, until it was surpassed by the more prosperous village of Sutton founded in the ninth century, now called Plymouth. In 1588, an English fleet based in Plymouth intercepted and defeated the Spanish Armada. In 1620, the Pilgrim Fathers departed Plymouth for the New World and established Plymouth Colony, the second English settlement in what is now the United States of America. During the English Civil War, the town was held by the Parliamentarians and was besieged between 1642 and 1646. Throughout the Industrial Revolution, Plymouth grew as a commercial shipping port, handling imports an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Westward Television
Westward Television was the first ITV franchise-holder for the South West of England. It held the franchise from 29 April 1961 until 31 December 1981. After a difficult start, Westward Television provided a popular, distinctive and highly regarded service to its region, until public boardroom squabbles led to its franchise not being renewed by the IBA. Westward launched the career of many broadcasters who became well known nationally, won numerous awards for its programming, and heavily influenced its successor, TSW. History The company's first chairman was Peter Cadbury, who had left the board of Tyne Tees Television to set up the company and bid for the south-west franchise, which he won against 11 competing bids. Cadbury named the company after the golf course at Westward Ho! in north Devon, where he played. Ironically, Westward Ho! was part of the region that found reception of the television signal most difficult, until the construction of the Huntshaw Cross relay tr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edward Stanley Gibbons
Edward Stanley Gibbons (21 June 1840 – 17 February 1913) was an English stamp dealer and founder of Stanley Gibbons Ltd, publishers of the famous Stanley Gibbons stamp catalogue and other stamp-related books and magazines. Early life Edward Stanley Gibbons was born at his father William Gibbons' chemist shop at 15 Treville Street, Plymouth on 21 June 1840, in the same year that the United Kingdom issued the Penny Black, which was the world's first postage stamp. Edward’s interest in postage stamps began whilst at Halloran’s Collegiate School. Gibbons, who was a member of The Plymouth Institution (now The Plymouth Athenaeum), owned a book containing stamps for exchange. Some of these stamps included the Western Australia 1d. black and a 1d. "Sydney View" of New South Wales. Edward left school at the age of 15 and worked for a short while in the Naval Bank, Plymouth, before joining his father’s business after the death of his elder brother. William Gibbons encourag ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Were Fox The Younger
Robert Were Fox FRS (26 April 1789 – 25 July 1877) was a British geologist, natural philosopher and inventor. He is known mainly for his work on the temperature of the earth and his construction of a compass to measure magnetic dip at sea. Life and family Fox was born on 26 April 1789 at Falmouth, England, the eldest son of Robert Were Fox (1754–1818) and his wife, Elizabeth Tregelles. He had nine siblings. The Fox family were members of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), and were descended from members who had long settled in Cornwall, although they were not related to George Fox who had introduced the community into the county. In 1814, Fox the Younger married Maria Barclay (1785–1858), daughter of Robert and Rachel Barclay of Bury Hill, near Dorking, Surrey. Maria's sister, Lucy, married Fox's cousin, George Croker Fox (1784–1850). Robert Were Fox the Younger and his wife had three children, Anna Maria (1816–1897), Barclay (1817–1855) and Carolin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Isaac Foot
Isaac Foot (23 February 1880 – 13 December 1960) was a British Liberal politician and solicitor. Early life Isaac Foot was born in Plymouth, the son of a carpenter and undertaker who was also named Isaac Foot, and educated at Plymouth Public School and the Hoe Grammar School, which he left at the age of 14. He then worked at the Admiralty in London, but returned to Plymouth to train as a solicitor. Foot qualified in 1902, and in 1903, with his friend Edgar Bowden, he set up the law firm Foot and Bowden, which as Foot-Anstey still exists. He became a member of the Liberal Party, and in 1907 was elected to Plymouth City Council, of which he remained a member for twenty years, serving as Deputy Mayor in 1920. As Deputy Mayor he represented Plymouth in the United States for the celebrations of the ''Mayflower''s tercentenary. Parliamentary career Foot first stood for parliament in Totnes in January 1910, losing to the sitting Liberal Unionist, F. B. Mildmay He then stood twice ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Henry De La Beche
Sir Henry Thomas De la Beche KCB, FRS (10 February 179613 April 1855) was an English geologist and palaeontologist, the first director of the Geological Survey of Great Britain, who helped pioneer early geological survey methods. He was the first President of the Palaeontographical Society. Biography De la Beche was born in Welbeck Street, Cavendish Square, London. He was the only son of Thomas De la Beche (1755–1801) and his wife, Elizabeth. The family name was originally Beach, but his father changed it to create a fictional connection with the medieval Barons De la Beche of Aldworth, Berkshire. His father served as a brevet major (later lieutenant-colonel) in the Norfolk Yeomanry, a regiment of fencibles in the British Army, and was a slave owner with an estate in Jamaica. In 1800 the family travelled to the plantation in Jamaica when Thomas inherited the estate and his father died there in the following year. Mother and son returned to England, having been shipwrecked to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended from a common ancestor is now generally accepted and considered a fundamental concept in science. In a joint publication with Alfred Russel Wallace, he introduced his scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process he called natural selection, in which the struggle for existence has a similar effect to the artificial selection involved in selective breeding. Darwin has been described as one of the most influential figures in human history and was honoured by burial in Westminster Abbey. Darwin's early interest in nature led him to neglect his medical education at the University of Edinburgh; instead, he helped to investigate marine invertebrates. His studies at the University of Cambridge's Christ's Col ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Porrett Collier, 1st Baron Monkswell
Robert Porrett Collier, 1st Baron Monkswell, (21 June 1817 – 27 October 1886) was an English lawyer, politician and judge. Background and education He was the eldest son of John Collier, a merchant of Plymouth, formerly a member of the Society of Friends and MP for that town from 1832 to 1842. Robert Collier was born in 1817, and was educated at the grammar school and other schools at Plymouth till the age of sixteen, when he was placed under the tuition of Mr Kemp, subsequently rector of St James's, Piccadilly, London. He went to Trinity College, Cambridge, and while there wrote some clever parodies, and published a satirical poem called 'Granta'. Ill-health compelled him to abandon reading for honours and to quit the university, to which he only returned to take the ordinary B.A. degree in 1843. Already a politician, he made some speeches at Launceston in 1841 with a view to contesting the borough in the Liberal interest, but did not go to the poll, and he was an active ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Derwent Coleridge
Derwent Coleridge (14 September 1800 – 28 March 1883), third son of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, was a distinguished English scholar and author. Early life Derwent Coleridge was born at Keswick, Cumberland, 14 September 1800 (Derwent Water is not far away). He was sent with his brother Hartley to be educated at a small school near Ambleside. The two brothers were in those days in continual intercourse with Southey and Wordsworth. Derwent was sent to St. John's College, Cambridge, where he formed intimate lifelong friendships with W. M. Praed, Macaulay, John Moultrie, Sidney Walker, Charles Austin, and Bulwer. In the autumn of 1822, he joined them as a contributor to ''Knight's Quarterly Magazine''. His contributions, signed "DAVENANT CECIL", were mostly poetical. He proceeded B.A. 1824, and M.A. 1829. After becoming estranged from his father, he moved to Plymouth, where he became a teacher. He became involved in the intellectual life of the town, joining The Plymouth ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nicholas Toms Carrington
Nicholas Toms Carrington (also Noel Thomas) (1777–1830) was an English schoolmaster and poet. Life The son of a retail grocer at Plymouth, Carrington was born there. Shortly his parents moved to Plymouth Dock, and for some time he was employed as a clerk in the Plymouth dockyard. Then he became a seaman on board a man-of-war, and was present at the Battle of Cape St Vincent (1797). After his term of service Carrington settled at Maidstone, Kent, where for five years he taught a public school. In 1809, with support from friends, he established a private academy at Plymouth Dock, which he then ran until six months before his death, 2 September 1830. Works At an early period of his life Carrington, who was a member of The Plymouth Institution (now The Plymouth Athenaeum), began to contribute verse to London and provincial papers. His poems are mainly descriptive of the scenery and traditions of Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non- ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Buckland
William Buckland Doctor of Divinity, DD, Royal Society, FRS (12 March 1784 – 14 August 1856) was an English theologian who became Dean of Westminster. He was also a geologist and paleontology, palaeontologist. Buckland wrote the first full account of a fossil dinosaur, which he named ''Megalosaurus''. His work proved that Kirkdale Cave in North Yorkshire had been a prehistoric hyena den, for which he was awarded the Copley Medal. It was praised as an example of how scientific analysis could reconstruct distant events. He pioneered the use of fossilised Feces, faeces in reconstructing ecosystems, coining the term coprolites. Buckland followed the Gap creationism, Gap Theory in interpreting the biblical account of ''Genesis'' as two widely separated episodes of creation. It had emerged as a way to reconcile the scriptural account with discoveries in geology suggesting the earth was very old. Early in his career Buckland believed he had found evidence of the Deluge myth, biblic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Spence Bate
Charles Spence Bate, FRS (March 16, 1819 – July 29, 1889) was a British zoologist and dentist. Life He was born at Trenick House near Truro, the son of Charles Bate (1789–1872) and Harriet Spence (1788–1879). Charles adopted "Spence Bate" as his surname, perhaps to distinguish himself from his father, and used that name consistently in his publications; it was also used consistently by his contemporaries to refer to him. He practiced dentistry first at Swansea, and then at Plymouth, taking over his father's practice. He was president of the Odontology Society. He was an authority on the Crustacea, for which he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1861, and a frequent correspondent of Charles Darwin, mostly concerning their shared interest in barnacles. Together with John Obadiah Westwood, he wrote "''A history of the British sessile-eyed Crustacea''" in 1868. He wrote reports on the crustaceans collected during the HMS ''Challenger'' expedition of 1872–1876. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
